The Fault in Our Stars is the 74th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Gilli Nissim, and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2014 YA romantic drama adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars. It was published on September 23, 2014, to coincide with the film's release on home video and Blu-ray. It is 4 minutes 21 seconds long. It has been viewed over 8.8 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - The Fault in Our Stars on YouTube
"Everyone you love will die." ~ Honest Trailers - The Fault in Our Stars
Script[]
Based on the book that inspired a million crying girls' Tumblr posts comes the romance that did for cancer what Twilight did for vampires: The Fault in Our Stars.
Ride along for a touching story about how one girl's cancer led to fun, sex, and extravagant European vacations. But instead of sugarcoating the truth, get ready for two well-rounded characters with a powerful message: everyone you love will die.
Meet Hazel and her sidekick, luggage (shows Hazel dragging her oxygen tank). She's a smart young girl who's more than just a cancer survivor; she's also a total downer. Hazel's world will transform when she attends the most adorable cancer support group ever. There, she'll meet fellow survivor Augustus Waters, a confident, six-foot-four, well-spoken, adorkable, polite, funny star athlete-philosopher-poet with a six-pack.
Gus: That's probably why I'm still a virgin.
Uh-huh, sure you are.
Together, they'll bond over a book with a title just as pretentious as "The Fault in Our Stars" (An Imperial Affliction) and their shared habit of talking like really weird old people.
Gus: Your daughter, she's done a great injustice!...You have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are...I am in the midst of a grand soliloquy here!
Hazel: Welcome to the sweet torture of reading An Imperial Affliction...Drink gimlets and take pot.
Michael: Uhhh, you don't take pot.
Follow Gus' heroic struggle to get into a dying girl's pants, a struggle so difficult, he has to read her favorite book, score her a meeting with its reclusive author, and exploit a cancer charity to send them on a dream vacation just to get out of the friend zone.
Gus: We're friends?
Hazel: Friends.
(shows Gus and Hazel half-naked in bed together) You earned it, pal.
Say "okay" to a PG-13 film that glorifies underage drinking, life-threatening sex, and making out in the room where Anne Frank was abducted with no consideration for the people who came there to honor the Holocaust. (shows visitors at the Anne Frank House clapping as Hazel and Gus kiss) Uhhh, not sure that warrants a slow clap, but...okay...?
So cuddle up for a beautiful finale where our star-crossed lovers have a moment of true happiness together before everything goes to hell, featuring tough-to-watch medical emergencies, heartbreaking hospital visits, a close friend going blind, a close friend getting dumped just for going blind -- the bitch -- Willem Dafoe being a dream-crushing dick, teenagers with cancer attending their own practice funeral, real funerals, and four different eulogies.
Hazel (crying): You gave me forever...within the numbered days...and for that, I am...I'm eternally grateful.
(crying) Enough! It's too sad! Just go to "Starring". Go!
Starring Oh, That's Ansel (He's So Hot Right Now) (Ansel Elgort as Gus Waters); Sick McLovin (Nat Wolff as Isaac); Jurassic Mom (Laura Dern as Frannie Lancaster); That Guy Who Showed His Butt a Lot on True Blood (Sam Trammell as Michael Lancaster); Douchepants (Willem Dafoe as Peter van Houten); and Tewwwbs (Shailene Woodley as Hazel Lancaster).
Honest title for The Fault in Our Stars - Cancer F*cking Sucks. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
Cancer F*cking Sucks.
Gus: You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth (sticks a cigarette in his mouth), but you never give it the power to kill you.
He totally stole that from "Gettin' Jiggy With It".
Will Smith: Ciga-cigar/From Cuba-Cubar./Just bite it, for the look;/I don't light it.
Trivia[]
- Screen Junkies have produced produced Honest Trailers for many movies based on YA books including The Hunger Games, Mortal Engines, The Maze Runner, Divergent, Twilight, and Harry Potter. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - The Fault in Our Stars has a 98.1% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Uproxx said the "hilarious humans over at Screen Junkies" boiled the movie's success down to "Aryan protagonists, crafty dialogue, and adorable, bald-faced lies about terminal illness." Uproxx found Screen Junkies take on the film amusing, writing "I rarely LOL (for reasons of self-respect), but I came very close at multiple points during the sequence."
Bustle was surprised by Screen Junkies measured appreciation for the film, writing "it's weirdly refreshing to witness a feature built on burns giving in to such unironic feeling." In the same article, Bustle also highlighted the changing tone of the Honest Trailers series, noting:
There's a lot you can jab at with The Fault In Our Stars based purely on its positioning: It's a cancer story, it's built in a way predetermined to milk your tears, it's part of the YA movie "trend," and its target audience is teenage girls, a group well-versed in having its media poked at just because of who it caters to. There's a lot of parody potential there. And so it's surprising to me how much this honest trailer so clearly doesn't dislike The Fault In Our Stars. It's their job to poke fun, and so they do, but there's a distinct lack of venom. In fact, there's something almost akin to respect? And there's definitely a lot of enjoyment. Since when do Honest Trailers lead into their roasting with the caveat that they're talking about "well-rounded characters?" (Alanna Bennett, September 25, 2014, Bustle)
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - The Fault in Our Stars
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Original music by Sean Motley
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Gilli Nissim, and Andy Signore
Edited by Dan Murrell & Casey Donahue
External links[]
- The Honest Trailer For ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ Renames It ‘Cancer F*cking Sucks’ - Uproxx article
- If 'The Fault In Our Stars' Were Honest, It'd Be Called 'Cancer F*cking Sucks' - The Huffingtom Post article
- 'The Fault In Our Stars' Honest Trailer Is Hilarious And ... Surprisingly Nice About the Movie? — VIDEO - Bustle article
- Honest Trailer for THE FAULT IN OUR STARS - Geek Tyrant article